


No Man's Land

by lunarperigee (nilavu)



Category: ONEUS (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Army, Battle, Battlefield, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Slavery, Soldiers, War, happy ending only because you all voted for it, historical and medical inaccuracy abounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:21:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29473896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nilavu/pseuds/lunarperigee
Summary: “No, no, no, no-”It’s all Geonhak can remember hearing, voice raising higher in volume until it’s a scream at the end, the only clear thing he hears in the midst of the chaos of the battlefield. Just as he recognises it as the engineer’s voice, there’s a deafening sound that makes his ears ring and the world tilts and freezes, and then slows down.He’s too far away to bear the brunt of the impact but he still sees the column of smoke, the sudden flames and the scattering of dirt as the cracked and overheated cannon explodes instead of firing. He’s too far away to see who’s exactly there, but his heart stutters in his chest as he watches the sun catch strands of dark red hair. Geonhak can’t see his face, can’t see his expression as the man is blown off his feet and slammed onto the ground.
Relationships: Kim Geonhak | Leedo & Lee Seoho, Kim Geonhak | Leedo/Lee Seoho
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	No Man's Land

“No, no, no, no-”

It’s all Geonhak can remember hearing, voice raising higher in volume until it’s a scream at the end, the only clear thing he hears in the midst of the chaos of the battlefield. Just as he recognises it as the engineer’s voice, there’s a deafening sound that makes his ears ring and the world tilts and freezes, and then slows down. 

He’s too far away to bear the brunt of the impact but he still sees the column of smoke, the sudden flames and the scattering of dirt as the cracked and overheated cannon explodes instead of firing. He’s too far away to see who’s exactly there, but his heart stutters in his chest as he watches the sun catch strands of dark red hair. Geonhak can’t see his face, can’t see his expression as the man is blown off his feet and slammed onto the ground. 

The man doesn’t get up.

***

_ A spark of light glints off the chains around his wrists. He scrunches up his eyes, and turns his head away. There is a sudden tug from the man in front of the line. _

_ “Well? COME ON! No dawdling, you wretches! I have to get you to the town market before noon! The guards won’t wait for you! Come on! Do you not hear me?!” _

_ There is another harsh yank and he nearly falls forward onto the dusty ground, caught by surprise. His hands come up feebly in front of him as he anticipates the fall but it is for naught because there is another tug, gentle and slightly unsure, from the boy behind him. He’s scrawny and caked in mud just like he is- just like they all are. He doesn’t have the energy to smile in gratitude. _

_ He turns his head back and frowns as a ray of the setting sun catches his eyes. The scene shifts. _

_ Darkness pervades his vision, no moon to light the room.  _

_ “What’s your name?” _

_ It’s a thin reed thrown to his right in his mother tongue, to the bed that is occupied by the blond boy who he couldn’t thank. He knows the boy is from his own homeland, one of the few ones from their bedraggled group deemed strong enough to make it past their captors’ requirements- strong enough to live and make the food and water they gave him worthwhile. _

_ The boy lies in silence for a while, probably searching for any footsteps. His voice, when he starts, is steeped in hesitation. _

_ “My name….is Leedo.” _

_ He frowns, something like fire settling in his chest. “No, I know that…..I meant your real name.” _

_ The boy doesn’t acknowledge it and the silence continues until- _

_ He has to strain to hear it, and even then, he’s not sure he heard it right. _

_ “Geon...hak..?” _

_ The boy in the bed gives him an imperceptible nod. _

_ “And mine is-” _

_ “I already know yours.” _

_ His chest burns a bit more but when he replies, his voice is slightly cold. _

_ “No. You don’t,” he says, and turns over to the opposite side. He can hear Geonhak squirming around in his bed. He closes his eyes, and loses himself in a spinning world that suddenly sets itself straight again. _

_ The room isn’t quite dark, courtesy of the faint light climbing in through the large windows overlooking the courtyard. Footsteps alert him to the fact that he is not alone in the dormitory. He stiffens.  _

_ “What are you doing?!” Geonhak is frantic, brow creased in worry, as he jumbles up the words in their shared mother tongue.  _

_ “What does it look like I’m doing?” Seoho says as he stuffs the satchel sitting on his bed with the meagre amount of food he has squirrelled away, before throwing in a rope he nicked from the last practice session he had. _

_ “You’re going to get yourself killed!” _

_ “Even that would be better than this,” he mutters. “They’ve ripped us from our homes, forced us to pray to gods that we don’t believe in, taken our names-” _

_ “Not you though,” Geonhak says, facing the window. _

_ It’s only a low mumble, made even lower because of Geonhak’s newly deep voice but it’s enough to make him stiffen again. _

_ Geonhak faces him once more. “You saw what happened to that man- it’s impossible to escape! They’re going to find you and drag you back- they’re going to behead you!” _

_ He faces the other boy, dumping the satchel in the small nook between the back of the bed and the wall. _

_ “Are you going to tell?” _

_ Geonhak’s blond hair trembles as he shakes his head quickly, offended at the words. _

_ Seoho pauses. “You can….come with me...if you want.” _

_ Geonhak starts at the offer and doesn’t speak for a few minutes. _

_ “When are you going to do it? Today?” _

_ “No, not today. There’s a feast tomorrow. I’ll do it then, when they’re all too drunk to notice.” _

_ Geonhak nods and his form dissolves into the air, accompanied by a flash of white that goes as quickly as it comes, like a candle being snuffed out, and everything is suddenly black. _

_ Through the pitch darkness, a whimper sounds. Something cuts through the air. Through somewhere, into something- into  _ someone _. There is another groan of pain. _

_ “I hope this is enough to teach you to not try to leave, boy.” The voice of the chief guard seems almost sad. There’s a pause, and then a deep sigh. _

_ “This place is your home. The people here are your brothers, your family- Have you forgotten what I told you on your first day already, boy?”  _

_ Seoho places the bowl of water and the cloth gently onto the cold stones of the cell, his hands trembling. A pair of footsteps gets close to the bowl that he set down, stops for a moment and then starts up again. _

_ “Do you have any idea what you did, boy?” The chief guard's footsteps sound menacing and dangerous- like a predator stalking its prey. “Leaving your family- leaving your people- that’s what we call cowardice! That’s what we call treason! If you try to escape again, they’ll have your head, understand? Understand?”  _

_ The last word Seoho hears before he shakily opens the door is stern and unyielding. The outside world overwhelms his eyes with light, just as a blond head pops into his view outside the door. _

_ A hand muddles both the water and the reflection in the stream, before it withdraws quickly and flicks the water onto the blond man beside him rubbing soothing circles on his horse. The other simply turns around and glares at him, and he knows that it’s his signal to run. The other gives chase, just like he knew he would. The world around them passes by in a blur of green, all different shades melding together into one as he runs through the forest. He must be slightly out of shape because the other man is quickly catching up. Suddenly, he trips over something, and he tumbles ungraciously onto the muddy ground. He only realises it as he’s lying in a heap, with an unexpected weight on top, that he has been caught. _

_ "You're too heavy, Geonhakkie," Seoho grunts. _

_ Geonhak makes an offended sound but pushes himself up nonetheless and Seoho rolls over, ready to get back on his feet, when he realises that was a mistake.  _

_ Geonhak has both of his arms planted on either side of Seoho's head, imprisoning him against the wet ground and himself.  _ Oh.

_ Geonhak seems to have realised their compromised position at the same time he did, ears going red and eyes widening. He shoots up with a sudden burst of energy as if the ground is made of fire, and extends his hand out for Seoho to take, looking to the side instead of Seoho's face. A rock of disappointment swims to the bottom of Seoho's stomach and rests there. _

_ They have both underestimated the ground's wetness, however, and Seoho would have winced in sympathy if he had actually gotten the chance when Geonhak slips on mud and falls backward, taking Seoho back down with him. _

_ The laughter bubbles up out of him before he knows it, and when Geonhak's initial groans of pain and curses are over, he joins him. _

_ Geonhak's laugh is nothing like his voice- clear and high-pitched in contrast to the depth that could rival an ocean. It's the laugh Seoho's heard many times before in his life, directed at him and others, but one he appreciates being able to see right now in this moment. If someone asks Seoho why he did it, he would say it's in the way Geonhak's eyes are squeezed tight, the laughter clutching his shoulders together towards each other underneath him, the way the weak sun shines onto Geonhak's hair for just a moment, the way that Seoho thinks his heart knocks itself higher each time his ears hear Geonhak's laugh, the way that this ethereal being is simply Geonhak- _

_ "God, this is so ridiculous," Geonhak says as he opens his eyes a bit to look up at Seoho, laughter melding its way into his words. _

_ Yes, this is simply Geonhak, and he has Seoho's heart. _

_ Seoho leans down, suddenly close, oh so very close to the lips that he liked to tease were like a baby chick's beak. Geonhak freezes. Seoho only stares, until he can't do it anymore and inches closer and closer. Their breaths mingle and Seoho can feel Geonhak's chest rise with his breathing. Seoho closes his eyes and tilts his head. Just a bit more- _

Something slams him onto the ground. There is a buzzing in his ears, not quite like a bee, but more like the bell from the church that he used to go to clutching his mother’s hand. He still can’t open his eyes, still feels as though his body has been tied to heavy stones and thrown into the deep sea. It’s too heavy and he’s too weak to resist. He’s drowning. 

There’s a slap to his left cheek- or is it his right? Then another, on the other side. It’s annoying and he faintly registers the sting before everything else does. 

The pain consumes him like a sudden wave, washing over him and dragging him under, tossing him around to its own pleasure. It’s all at once, all too soon, and it has him gasping for breath.

“Hey, hey-”

The voice is familiar, he would recognise it anywhere, but it’s too tiny, too far away, too frayed of a thread for him to cling to-

Another explosion sets off in the distance, and he hears the bell again, ringing incessantly right into his ears.

“-eoho! Seoho!”

The word and the voice that speaks it slam into his consciousness like the icy water he was once forced to bathe in as punishment. 

_ Seo. Ho. _

Two neat syllables. His name- the new name he had given himself because they had liked his birth name, because they had refused to rip it away from him like they had with the others- like they had with Geonhak.

Geonhak-

Seoho forces his eyes open, vision blurring for a minute before slowly clearing. The haze sharpens into Geonhak's outline- the broad shoulders, the strong arms and sturdy torso- all the things he has committed to memory. He might be hallucinating but he thinks Geonhak's eyes are a bit glassy. 

"Come on, let's get you to the physicians."

Geonhak clutches him gently and props him up into an upright position. Seoho clenches his eyes shut and grits his teeth as Geonhak loops an arm around his waist delicately. Before Seoho knows it, he's fully in Geonhak's arms. If the pain was the price he needed to pay to be in Geonhak's arms, then he was still not willing to pay. It hurt way worse than when he was sprawled out on the grass. And Seoho wasn't an idiot. He's sure that if he just asked, Geonhak could just lift him on any other day  _ sans  _ the pain. It's just that the price then will be a heavy blush and reddening ears and the teasing he'd have to endure for the rest of his life.

"Don't…." Seoho croaks. Geonhak leans his head close to Seoho, looking worried. "Don't drop me, you idiot."

Geonhak huffs incredulously but Seoho feels the tenseness in his muscles as he grips him a little tighter.

"Hang on, we're almost there."

The last stretch to the physician's tent is hurried but Geonhak doesn't stumble. His steps are still sure, and when he lays Seoho onto the thin mattress on the ground, it's with the utmost care and control.

The physicians are nowhere to be found, although there are plenty of men groaning in pain near him. Some are not moving.

"It was.." Seoho winces as his chest suddenly tightens. "It was the...cannon, wasn't it?"

Geonhak nods and then kneels down onto the grass so he's close. "Shh..Don't talk. Try to save your energy." He looks around frantically.

"I'll be fine, Geonhakkie." He tries to smile, and hopes it doesn't look like a grimace. 

Worry still clouds over Geonhak's face. "Just-" he gulps, and looks around again. "I'll go search for the physicians."

Seoho starts nodding his head but Geonhak looks at him then, so piercingly that even if he didn't utter those three simple words- those three simple words that were so difficult to say out loud but so easy to feel, Seoho would have understood him anyway. 

Geonhak gives a quick squeeze to Seoho's hand and then he's off, blond head darting here and there like a fish in a pond. He whispers a prayer to a long-forgotten god to keep Geonhak safe.

The siege is still continuing in full swing despite the setback of the cannon explosion and even as Seoho closes his eyes and swallows down the pain, he can hear more cannons firing in an attempt to batter the castle walls. 

**Author's Note:**

> Title suggested by the wonderful [@wntrflwrs](https://twitter.com/wntrflwrs)
> 
> Inspired by three things:  
> 1\. The [janissaries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary) of the Ottoman Empire. These were originally young boys taken from Christian families from distant regions of the empire and then converted to Islam, after which they would undergo the necessary training to be part of the Sultan's elite guard and the Ottoman army.  
> 2\. The cannon exploding scene in Netflix’s ‘Rise of Empires: Ottoman’  
> 3\. The Turkish series ‘Muhteșem Yüzyıl: Kösem’
> 
> And finally:[my Twitter.](https://twitter.com/ikeonheek) [Moodboard](https://twitter.com/ikeonheek/status/1361448422516154368) for the fic.


End file.
